Transformation of folklore images and motifs in Dara Korniy's novel "Honykhmarnyk"

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Nataliia Vivcharyk

Abstract. The article examines folklore motifs and images of Dara Kornyi's novel "Honykhmarnyk", which is offered to be analyzed in the Ukrainian literature class in the 11th grade in the context of studying modern literature. It is indicated that the writer contributed to the development of the urban fantasy genre, and her work is rooted in folklore and mythology, which will allow students to deepen their knowledge of oral folk art, to draw parallels with the works they studied in high school, in particular Lesia Ukrainka's "Forest Song" and "Shadows of forgotten ancestors" by Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi. It is proven that the synthesis of arts as a characteristic feature of the style, folklore echoes, poetic epigraphs, and mentions of the names of famous artists significantly expand the context of the work and generate allusions that should be analyzed in class. The title of the novel and the names of individual sections indicate its connection with mythology and folklore. The work contains many legends, tales, and folk songs, and artistically interprets the image of a duplicitous man who belongs to the corpus of Ukrainian "lower mythology". The article analyzes the main signs of a two-headed person and also focuses on rituals that can reduce the power of Gradobur. In parallel with the image of Honykhmarnyk, the history of the herbalist family, to which Alina belongs, is described. A whole series of legends, tales, and superstitions are woven into the artistic fabric of the work, in particular, about the power of charms that protect against evil spirits. One of the aspects of the research was the legend of the family curse and Alina's efforts to break the closed circle. The struggle between good and evil in the work is marked as a confrontation between black and white magic.

It has been proven that the Carpathian and Lviv topos play an important role in the novel, in the coordinates at which the main characters interact. It is revealed that nature reveals the true nature of the heroes, and the patron of the city guards the secrets of its inhabitants. It is illustrated that Dara Korniy resorts to erasing the boundaries between reality, memories, dreams, and real and parallel worlds, and paintings serve as a kind of portals to the afterlife. The main character tries to separate two beings and save the soul of her beloved. It is indicated that the journeys to the afterlife are filled with horror, so they resemble fragments of Gothic works, but the power of her love can overcome all obstacles.

Keywords; folklore, school program, analysis, genre, legend, reincarnation, urban fantasy, symbol.

studying modern literature folklore motifs dara kornyi's honykhmarnyk

1. INTRODUCTION

Delving into the study of oral folk art is an important component of personality formation at various stages of its development, as folk memory is preserved in folklore texts. Oral folk creativity contributes to knowing and preserving "national and universal human values, to live and act creatively in the conditions of globalization changes and a multicultural society, to appreciate the heritage of national culture and respect the achievements of other nations", contributes to the formation of a "comprehensively developed, capable of critical thinking" personality, which "acts according to moral - ethical principles" (Ministry of education and science of Ukraine, n.d., p. 6). The program of Ukrainian literature involves the study of oral folk art by students of grades 5 -9, who gradually expand their knowledge of such folklore genres as fairy tales, ballads, thoughts, historical songs, and legends. In grades 10-11, separate lessons for the study of folklore are not planned, but the subject involves deepening what was learned in the middle grades through the study of literary works based on folklore motifs and images, in particular, "Forest Song" by Lesia Ukrainka, "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" by Mykhailo Kotsiubinskyi. All this contributes to the formation of one of the key competencies, which involves awareness and self-expression in the field of culture, "the ability to understand works of art, to form one's artistic tastes, to independently express ideas, experiences, and feelings with the help of art" (The concept of a new Ukrainian school, 2016, p. 12). At the final stage of studying Ukrainian literature at school, students get to know modern authors and analyze the genre and style features of their works, the novelty, and the dynamics of the development of modern Ukrainian literature. To familiarize students with the genre of urban fantasy in more detail, as well as to deepen and expand knowledge of folklore with the help of comparative-historical and mythological methods, the teacher should pay attention to the contribution of Dara Korniy (Myroslava Zamoyska) to the development of modern Ukrainian literature.

2. RESEARCH METHODS

There are more than a dozen novels in Dara Korniy's creative output: "Honykhmarnyk" (2010), "Because You Are" (2012), "A Star for You" (2013), "The Reverse of Darkness" (2013), "Cuckoo of Winter" (2014), "Diary of the Seagull" (2014), "Cloud-Colored Wings" (2015), "Parsley" (2015), "Further Side of Dusk" (2016), "Further Side of Worlds" (2016), "Constellation I'm a Virgo" (2018), "Moonlight" (2019). "Honykhmarnyk" became iconic, because it received the most awards: the third prize in the nomination "novel" from "Coronation of the Word", "Debut of the Year" from "Reader's Friend" publication, etc. This novel was actively discussed both in reading and literary circles, as indicated by favorable reviews by N. Lishchynska, Liuko Dashvar, O. Renn, K. Sosnyuk, and Y. Zhelezna, T. Tarasenko. Critics called Dara Korniy the Ukrainian Stefania Mayer, and the mystical love story from "Honykhmarnyk" was compared to the vampire saga "Twilight". A teacher can encourage students to conduct the search, prepare information about the specifics of the fantasy genre, investigate the origins of the theme of "Honykhmarnyk", and analyze the symbolic dreams that the main character sees. It is worth emphasizing that one of the defining features of the urban fantasy genre, to which "Honykhmarnyk" belongs, is its rootedness in mythology and folklore.

The relevancy of the article's topic is because the genre of urban fantasy remains an understudied genre, and the study of the novel "Honykhmarnyk" by Dara Korniy is important not only in the context of the development of modern Ukrainian literature but also for deepening knowledge of oral folk art, as well as the opportunity to get acquainted with dialect vocabulary, which reflects the regional aspect. Our goal is to analyze the specifics of studying the novel "Honykhmarnyk" in the lesson on Ukrainian literature in the 11th grade. The following tasks follow from the goal: to characterize the genre-stylistic features of the work, to trace the folklore origins of the image of the main character, the theme of the novel, and to analyze the author's contribution to the development of the urban fantasy genre. The object of the study is the novel "Honykhmarnyk" by Dara Korniy, as well as tales about the two-headed man. Considering the goal and task, we used historical-literary (the writer's contribution to the development of urban fantasy), comparative (for comparative characterization of works), hermeneutic (interpretation of the artistic text) methods, and myth-criticism helped to interpret the origins of individual images.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The author wrote the novel "Honykhmarnyk" at the request of her daughter, who enjoyed reading fantasy, in particular books from the "Twilight Saga" series by Stephanie Mayer. "Honykhmarnyk" by Dara Korniy is an urban fantasy in which the reception of Ukrainian folkloric and mythological plots, and the depiction of heroes in different time-space dimensions can be traced. In her work, the writer talked about several generations of women who are connected with mystical love stories with a gonykhmarnyk or a two-hearted man V. Voytovych in "Ukrainian Mythology" indicates that legends about these creatures with two guises (human and demonic) are still found in the Carpathians.. The author successfully weaved legends, beliefs, specific topos, and references to famous artists into the textual canvas of the novel, which significantly expanded the context and created an additional intertextual layer of the work.

There are reminiscences in "Honykhmarnyk" that create symbolic relationships with "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" by Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi and "Forest Song" by Lesia Ukrainka. The search for artistic echoes will create an opportunity to make sure that a literary work does not exist in isolation but indicates the persistence of traditions, and inter-art connections. The purpose of such a comparative analysis is an attempt to understand the context and to reveal the themes, images, and their origins deeply.

The mention of "Forest Song" by Lesia Ukrainka helps to interpret the personalities of the main characters: this book became Alina's favorite when she was 10 years old; the girl has bright green hair; the father sometimes calls his daughter Mavka; Alina tells her mother that she "met the One Who Tears Dams, or Sits in the Rock, the Forester. I don't know what it's called" (Korniy, 2010, p. 206).

Among the main features of fantasy, literary critics single out the existence of the so-called of "possible" worlds, a significant layer of the fantastic, unscientific, irrationality, and the presence of magic. Dana Kurylenko notes that in modern fantasy "a plot line in which an ordinary person falls in love with a mythical creature is popular, which was vividly demonstrated at the time in Lesya's "Forest Song" Ukrainian women" (Kurylenko, 2016, p. 211).

It is also worth tracing the parallels between Dara Korniy's novel and Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi's "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors": both works describe a love story that originated in a Carpathian village, as well as the ancient rivalry between two families, beliefs, and customs. In Dara Korniy, the history of the confrontation between the Sokirky (Hradobur) and Hryhorenko families continued in Lviv. And then "the music of the mountains sounds over the city, telling him...about the world, which is inhabited not only by people", Bat, "closing his eyes, plays like a skilled artist, writing colors with his flute, filling the world with sounds and joy" (Korniy, 2010, p. 123); at this time, Alina "picks up a brush, opens paints, she no longer belongs to herself" (Korniy, 2010, pp. 123-124). Synthesis of arts is one of the characteristic features of Dara Korniy's novel. The main characters get to know the world through music, literature, and art.

Alina's most faithful friends are books, and music, in particular the sounds of rain, as well as Vivaldi's "Seasons", inspire her to paint, "she can quote by heart the whole of Shevchenko's Kobzar and goes crazy about Homer and Jacques Lacan. Alina completed tailoring and sewing courses, courses of psychic magicians, for some time she went to learn to play the guitar, but to her great regret, she could not find courses for playing the trembita in Lviv" (Korniy, 2010, p. 11). Each chapter of "Honykhmarnyk" begins with a poem or song by a Ukrainian poet. In addition, folk songs are introduced into the work, and Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven are mentioned along with the Ukrainian ensemble "Dnipro" and the rock band "Ocean Elzy". Honykhmarnyk's voice also has a specific sound: "You can't call it a voice. Some kind of guttural spitting of sounds. It is a language because it has its own, albeit terrible, melody and rhythm. But the language is foreign, unfamiliar..." (Korniy, 2010, p. 62).

In Dara Korniy's novel, there are many allusions from both Ukrainian and world literature, painting, and music: "Bat understands - he found her. The one whom the Master called Margarita, Orpheus - Eurydice, Cupid - Psyche" (Korniy, 2010, p. 229). Therefore, the study of this novel will contribute to the strengthening and deepening of interdisciplinary connections.

Turning to the classics creates additional contexts also because Alina's mother, who is a teacher of Ukrainian literature, looks for answers to questions about what is happening to their family in books. Learning the history of her ancestors, Alina delves into a mysterious world in which Ukrainian folklore and mythology are closely intertwined.

The title of the novel refers to a mysterious creature - Honykhmarnyk, also known as Hradobur (or a hailstorm) - "a person who knows how to avert hail, take away clouds and rain" (Voytovych, 2002, p. 116). The importance of interpreting the title complex of the work is determined by the fact that it simultaneously performs several functions: 1) informative; 2) prognostic; 3) practical; 4) theoretical. Oksana Mishchenko emphasizes the importance of finding out the "extratextual and contextual meaning of headline words; establishing the relationship between the name of the work and it's anthropocentric and space-time" (Mishchenko, 2019, p. 84).

In Dara Kornyi's novel, the reader learns about the long-standing conflict between the families of two-hearted herbalists, connected with a curse. Valeriy Voytovych points out that there is a belief in the Carpathians about the realization of evil, said in a bad time, which Ivan Franko called the "fatal hour" (Voytovych, 2002, p. 385). A similar situation is described in the novel. Iryna recounts this story to her daughter: "Our great-great-great-grandfather Ostap was a very strong wizard and he was non-native. ... But he saw our great-great-great-grandmother Yaryna and fell in love so much that he was ready to renounce his family and even refused to return home. That's why his father cursed him" (Korniy, 2010, p. 97). Hailstorms became the embodiment of a curse because they attracted women from their families and destroyed the men who were next to them.

The main character is distinguished by special strength, although she was born in the city. She believes that, unlike her mother, she can break this ancient cycle. The strength and love of the girl are so great that even the mystical patron of the city, who always cared for his residents, believed in them. Alina dares to travel to another world to return the true soul of her beloved. Therefore, the plot of the novel is built on the confrontation between good and evil, which are marked by black and white colors. This gamut of colors is perceived by the girl as the presence/absence of the light stream. Alina and Bat (Sashko) are described in contrasting shades: "She remained a wonderful, white crow. No, a black crow among white crows" (Korniy, 2010, p. 11); for Sashko, "Alina Smotrychi, like an angel in a green wreath made of her hair, and wings behind her back... " (Korniy, 2010, p. 228). White colors also dominate Yurko's mystical image: the girl imagines blond hair under his baseball cap, and "two snow wings" under his T-shirt (Korniy, 2010, p. 253). The black color is a symbol of dark forces, otherworldly, night. In the novel "Honykhmarnyk" the main character Sashko (Bat) dresses only in black and wears black glasses. One of the subsections of the novel is called "The One Who Wears Black" (Korniy, 2010, p. 33). This color scheme symbolizes that the main character has a dark side of the soul, where the otherworldly creature of the two- hearted man lives. Dara Korniy vividly described the double appearance of Honykhmarnyk. For the first time, Hradobur's face is depicted in the episode when Iryna and Igor try to control the clouds together: "Suddenly, something rises from the grass. A creature with two faces. One is beautiful, good, similar to her Ihor, the other is scary, wrinkled, confused, disgusting, like a perversion from hell itself. No, this is not her Ihor. This is a two-hearted man. Honykhmarnyk, Gradobur. ... A distorted face, bared teeth, and crazy eyes..." (Korniy, 2010, p. 81). At the same time, based on myths and legends about two-hearted people, foresters, the author created a "new" image of Hradobur, who lives in the city. Contrasts mark the influence of black/white magic on the main characters' lives. The main characters are in love, but they embody hostile principles in an ancient duel that continues in Lviv. Alina's mother, who was the first to try to break the cursed circle, ran here. After the death of her grandmother, she married Vasyl and fled to the city where her daughter was born. Lviv is described as a city phenomenon, a city memory that attracts artists. In literature, these topos often function as a symbol or codes. For example, in the novel "Lexicon of Intimate Cities" by Yuriy Andrukhovych, Lviv appears as "Port City", "Crossroads City", "Circus City", "Madness City", "Executioner City", "Victim City", "Patriot City", "Dissident City" (Vivcharyk, 2019, p. 83). In Para Korniy's interpretation, Lviv has its mysterious patron - a young man in white, who is associated with light. "Ukrainian Mythology" indicates that Yuriy Zmiyeborets or Victorious was honored on the "level of the God of light Bilobog" (Voytovych, 2002, p. 610). Yuriy knows every resident and takes care of their needs. Lviv inspires artists. Alina demonstrates herself as a talented artist, studies at the Academy of Arts, and Sashko skillfully plays the flute and has the makings of a sculptor. They settled next to each other. Sashko is named Bat. In mythology, this is an "unclean" creature that was widely used in love magic. Bat is associated in Alina with the color black because he wears such clothes and hides his eyes behind dark glasses. After meeting this boy in a small workshop in the attic (a symbolic space of the ancient city), strange canvases appear from under the girl's brush, the meaning of which she is unable to "read", but her mother feels the approach of the chaser, which implicitly embodies the images in the picture. Alina subconsciously draws the struggle of various elements. Then she lost track of time, it drained her strength. The main character's mother reads the subtexts. She realizes that running away to the city did not help to break the mystical circle. Her only daughter must enter into her confrontation. The image of Honykhmarnyk is described in various ways, through references to pagan gods, folk beliefs and legends about hypocrites, and magical rituals.

The Carpathians are an important topos in the work. They can reveal secrets that are hidden in people: "The night sky is abundantly dotted with stars. Here, in the mountains, it seems both close and far at the same time, and you are a grain in the black field of eternity or a speck of dust. But it is important, so necessary, without which all this infinity is just a void, no, not a void - a vacuum" (Korniy, 2010, p. 168). Alina's memory is imprinted with childhood memories of the mountains, legends told by her father, and her mother's search for a healing potion. In the mountains, Alina begins to compose and retell fairy tales. Bat reveals his second essence in the Carpathians.

For Iryna, the trips to the Carpathians became a symbolic return to the Volyn forest, which grew near her parents' house: "The old forest was huddled around the village from all sides - a strict friend and a respected father. With his strength, he defended the village and its inhabitants from winds and the evil eye" (Korniy, 2010, p. 58). It was in this Volyn forest that the girl first saw a mountain owl, which evoked opposite feelings in her - love and fear. According to Andriy Gurduz, Dara Korniy managed to reproduce this in her novel "the pantheistic experience of the world characteristic for the Ukrainian Soul" (Gurduz, 2012, p. 231). To a certain extent, the topos of the forest in the novel overlap with its depiction in folk tales, myths, and legends: "And now a doze on his boat takes it far away, unseen and passed and experienced. Sleepy forests, deep lakes, bogs, treacherous swamps covered with a colorful carpet of flowers, pure resins, playful and powerful rattlesnakes" (Korniy, 2010, p. 58). Creatures dangerous to humans live in it, including the Snake, and the Perelesnyk. The road of trials of the main characters runs through the forest, and magical objects, spoken things, and talismans help to pass it unscathed. Iryna was saved by her grandmother's curtain with herbs from the destructive power of Horykhmarnyk. The woman later makes such a charm for her daughter. It is no coincidence that Mom asks Alina never to take off the heart-shaped pendant. It contains the power of the earth. Iryna knows that in moments of danger, it pulsates and strikes the two-hearted man like bright lightning that strikes not from above, but from below. Iryna passed on the knowledge to her, taught her that "there is power in every smallest blade of grass, flower, leaf," that you should thank the earth, you can't take money for medicine, because it won't help" (Korniy, 2010, p. 68); "The word, child, is a true treasure given to man by God..." (Korniy, 2010, p. 68). An important detail is the mention of the charm of a folk song, which "healed together with zeal" (Korniy, 2010, p. 271). At this stage of the analysis of the work, the teacher should draw parallels with the image of the Man of God from the "Black Council" by Panteleimon Kulish, which is studied in the 9th grade: "He knew how to treat all kinds of pains and heal all kinds of wounds. Maybe he helped the sick with his prayers, and maybe with his songs" (Kulish, 1998, p. 43). Belief in the magical power of words, incantations, and ritual actions is an important component of the work, which indicates a close relationship with folklore.

Dara Korniy introduces a ritual scene into the text, which is performed twice: the first time - with the body of Ihor, and the second time - with Sashko. While the two-hearted man is in a deep sleep, at this time it wanders outside his body, which must be turned 90 degrees in the direction of the sun's movement. According to folk beliefs, violation of the ritual or non-observance of the sequence can cause unpredictable consequences, if the body in which Honykhmarnyk lives is turned in the other direction, then the human soul can be lost, as well as common sense: "Ihor never recovered completely after that... He became like a little child. He went a little crazy. The two-hearted man was ready to kill me for that. But he could not get it. He cannot be outside the body for a long time, and I am far away, in Lviv" (Korniy, 2010, p. 209). However, Alina meets her "honykhmarnyk" in the city, certain episodes from her mother's life are repeated in Alina's life, and "Alina looks more and more like young Iryna..." (Korniy, 2010, p. 329). Dara Korniy often blurs the boundaries between reality, memories, dreams, and the afterlife when writing urban fantasy. The pictures drawn by the main character look like portals to a parallel world.

The topos of the house acquire special importance in the novel because it is the only place where a two-hearted man cannot enter unless the owner of the house invites him. In this way, the space is marked as one's own (safe) / another's (threatening), and the city acts as a kind of labyrinth in which heroes coexist. The author managed to show different guises of Hradobur, whom the readers see in different guises: a student with an interesting appearance, Alina's neighbor, Honykhmarnyk, who possesses mystical power, and a hypocrite who needs Alina's rescue.

In "Honykhmarnyk" by Dara Korniy, the main character enters the afterlife of her own free will. This topos is pierced with horror, reminiscent of fragments of Gothic works. Under a huge oak tree (in mythology and folklore it is the World Tree), which symbolizes the unity of the family, the girl meets Grandfather, whom she recognizes as a typical Cossack. He reveals to her the secret that she has much greater powers hidden in her than those of herbalists, but Alina must go through the trials herself. An oak leaf, which personifies the tenacity of the family, serves as a pointer for her. It is symbolic that even in another dimension the girl sees the Sun. Solar signs accompany the main character throughout the work: "... as long as the Sun is near, no one will harm her here, no one, because she is its child" (Korniy, 2010, p. 301). One of the last subsections of the work is called "She who came from the Sun". The sun is described as an alive being, with all good forces combined with it. When the girl frees the Sun, which was entangled in the crown of the oak tree, she feels that light pours into her body. In her dreams, the girl continues to communicate with her Grandfather and learn his wisdom. In this way, the writer combined two timelines. Alina is becoming stronger because she dared to break the family curse and save the soul of her beloved, she passed several tests, as often happens in folk tales. The meeting with the characteristic Grandfather, the Gatekeepers who look like Minotaurs, guessing riddles to overcome obstacles, the appearance of a raven horse where the Black Sun shines, and the return of the main character and her lover to the real world are consistent with folklore plots and indicate the strength of spirit and victory true feelings, goodness. When all the storylines of the novel reach a logical conclusion (Marta, to whom Alina restored her sight, and Peter are happy, Sashko will live without a second unclean soul), Alina has to fulfill one more requirement - to give up her lover, and he will never remember her. The writer delays the final solution and keeps readers in suspense. However, goodness and love finally win: the mysterious patron of Lviv, who has always been associated with bright colors, disrupts the usual course of events and gives the brave girl an unexpected meeting with Sashko in London, which we learn about in "Epigraph". The knowledge from Grandfather changed Alina not only internally, but also externally: "Taistra instead of the usual shoulder bag. The shirts are decorated with embroidery... Each ornament is not just a drawing. It is a language, the language of eternity" (Korniy, 2010, p. 328).

3. CONCLUSIONS

Трансформація фольклорних образів та мотивів у романі Дари Корній «Гонихмарник»

У статті досліджено фольклорні мотиви і образи роману Дари Корній «Гонихмарник», який запропоновано проаналізувати на уроці української літератури в 11 класі в контексті вивчення сучасної літератури. Вказано, що письменниця спричинилася до розвитку жанру міського фентезі, а її творчість закорінена в фольклор і міфологію, що дозволить поглибити знання учнів з усної народної творчості, провести паралелі з творами, які вони вивчали в старших класах, зокрема «Лісовою піснею» Лесі Українки та «Тінями забутих предків» Михайла Коцюбинського. Доведено, що синтез мистецтв як характерна риса стилю, фольклорні перегуки, поетичні епіграфи, згадки імен відомих митців значною мірою розширюють контекст твору та породжують алюзії, які варто проаналізувати на уроці. Заголовок роману та назви окремих підрозділів вказує на його зв'язок із міфологією і фольклором. Твір містить безліч легенд, переказів, народних пісень, художньо інтерпретує образ дводушника, який належить до корпусу української «нижчої міфології». У статті проаналізовано основні ознаки дводушника, а також зосереджено увагу на ритуалах, які здатні зменшити міць Градобура. Паралельно із образом Гонихмарника описано історію роду травниць, до якого належить Аліна. У художню тканину твору вплетено цілу низку легенд, переказів, повір'їв, зокрема про силу оберегів, які захищають від нечистої сили. Одним із аспектів дослідження стала легенда про родинне прокляття та намагання Аліни розірвати замкнуте коло. Боротьба добра і зла у творі маркована як протистояння чорної та білої магії.

Доведено, що важливу роль у романі відіграють топоси Карпат і Львова, у координатах яких взаємодіють головні герої. Виявлено, що природа відкриває справжнє єство героїв, а покровитель міста береже таємниці його жителів. Проілюстровано, що Дара Корній вдається до стирання кордонів між реальністю, спогадами, снами, реальним та паралельним світом, а картини служать своєрідними порталами в потойбіччя. Головна героїня намагається розділити два єства і врятувати душу коханого. Вказано, що мандри потойбіччям пронизані жахом, відтак нагадують уривки готичних творів, проте сила її любові здатна подолати всі перешкоди.

Ключові слова: фольклор, шкільна програма, аналіз, жанр, легенда, перевтілення, міське фентезі, символ.

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